


I Wondered Lonely, As A Reno

by KMD2018



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Bittersweet, F/M, Gift Fic, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:42:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29425464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KMD2018/pseuds/KMD2018
Summary: Reno walks in a field of yellow flowers, unable to rest.
Relationships: Tifa Lockhart/Reno
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17
Collections: Tifa's Harem Valentine's Day Fic Exchange





	I Wondered Lonely, As A Reno

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kamalia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamalia/gifts).



> Happy Valentines y’all! This is a quick little fic exchange gift for Kamalia, whose prompts were ‘Flowers’ ‘Smug’ and ‘Till death do us part’ so you know I just had to go a little angsty. Title from the old Wordsworth poem, which in part inspired this fic.

Reno came to walking in a field of yellow flowers, hands shoved in his pockets, head bent slightly. The first thing he noticed was the absence of pain. Then the absence of noise. A breeze stirred the blooms at his feet, but no sound accompanied their graceful bobbing. 

Pausing, he looked around. The flowers swam into the horizon in every direction, the sky an unnerving blanket of soft, diffused white light.   
“Well, shit.” He sighed, and his voice seemed oddly mute as if in a vacuum. He had nothing else to do, so he kept walking. Occasionally, he would kick the blooms, scattering the petals. He wished he could smoke.

There was a cigarette in his hand. He looked at it, wondering if it had always been there. He walked and smoked and kicked the flowers. Occasionally he felt an overwhelming fatigue, an urge to lay down and fade into the flowers. He resisted, dogged by a nagging sense that something was missing. His thoughts were slippery and hard to grasp, leaving only a lingering sense of loneliness. It made him restless. So he walked, he smoked, and he kicked the flowers. 

Time passed, he was sure of it. As sure as he was of putting one foot in front of the other. But whether it was seconds that ticked by or hours or even years, Reno could not tell. The pull to be at peace was a constant, as was his aching loneliness, sense of something unfinished.

A feeling – no, a sound. A beckoning whisper. After the unknowable stretch of silence, sound was almost frightening. Reno scanned the horizon, unable to pinpoint the source. Then – there! There was something that broke the monotony of flowers. A dark shape. He was drawn to it like a parched man to an oasis, lazy gait breaking into a dead run. It flickered in and out of existence, before finally resolving into a heartbreakingly familiar figure. Long dark hair, lovely red eyes caught in an expression of mild surprise. Tifa.

Only, as Reno drew near, he saw her hair was streaked with grey, fine lines around her eyes and mouth. Her posture was still proud, but carried a weary, tired air. Reno did not hesitate, immediately crushing her to his chest.

“Reno? It’s been so long…”

“Baby girl.” His voice cracked with joy, unashamed.

“Were you waiting for me, all this time?”

Reno suddenly knew. The restlessness, the sense of longing. “Of course. Till death do us part, babe.”

“I think we may be past that… But you were never good at keeping promises.” She said it with such a happy smile, Reno felt a little smug. He drew back, stroking her hair.

“You must be the hottest granny I’ve ever seen.”

Tifa laughed, bright and bell-like, and his vague loneliness eased, replaced by a sense of peace. “Oh Reno, I have so much to tell you…”

They walked, talking, and laughing until content, eventually fading from the field of flowers, together.

**Author's Note:**

> Reno is tenacious, and loyal. I think he would stick by his corporeal heart and guts even in death.


End file.
